Mandera County government has flagged off the county wide relief food distribution to the vulnerable households following the on-going drought across all the six sub counties.
During the flagging off, area Governor Ali Roba noted that the perennial drought has impacted negatively on the livelihood of pastoral communities in both urban and rural areas.
Roba stated that in November last year, the County’s multi-sectoral technical officers led by the Special Programme Department conducted a rapid need assessment of the most vulnerable households across the six constituencies up to the village level.
According to assessment, 45,665 households were in dire need of humanitarian relief support in the entire county, Mandera South being the most affected constituency.
In the distribution, the county government will consider registered orphanages, special schools, non-locals, people living with disability, IDPS and recent fire victims in Wargadud area, with each household set to get 25kgs of rice.
Roba noted that during the prolonged drought, Mandera County government has upscaled response and mitigation to drought by drilling and equipping 75 additional boreholes that were strategically located across the county.
He added that the county rapid response team has been effectively responding to borehole breakdown effectively within a very short time.
Roba confirmed that his government is planning to upscale the ECD school feeding programme and limited fodder distribution to the affected families.
The governor thanked the national government for continued support particularly in the provision of additional fodder, animal feed supplements and emergency borehole repairs through the National Drought Management Authority.
He requested residents to coexist peacefully as inter community tension is always high during such times of scarcity of resources.
By Charles Matacho
